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Monday, April 11, 2016

10th Istanbul Gathering for Freedom of Expression

Istanbul Gathering for Freedom of Expression, organized by the Initiative Against Thought Crime once every two years, has been held this year with the cooperation of bianet, Transparency International Turkey and Truth Justice Memory Center, on April 9-10, at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Various international and national NGOs attended the gathering to discuss topics such as impunity, freedom of press and expression, defamation lawsuits, censor and state intervention in the legal system. Opening speeches were held by Berna Akkızal from the Initiative Against Thought Crime, Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı from İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law, Erol Önderoğlu from bianet and Murat Çelikkan from Truth Justice Memory Center.

While talks on the first day of the gathering focused specifically on freedom of expression, human rights, academic freedom, pressure on journalism, internet censorship as they pertain to cases in Turkey talks on the second day placed these issues in a more global perspective and looked at the worldwide crisis of freedom of expression. The Istanbul gathering ended with the forum “Wars, Refugees and Reflexions on Freedom of Expression”.